Chapter 30: So you're gonna go out with Ronan and Teyla tomorrow and catch a lab rat?

"Why do I always find myself pointing out to you that something is a bad idea?" I asked in irritation.

"Tell me why it's a bad idea," John challenged again, sitting across from the work table in my lab.

"Because you're not all going in to it with the same agenda," I pointed out. "I know you - you're seeing this retrovirus as the ultimate biological weapon ... a way to render the Wraith vulnerable and therefore easily destroyed. Do you think Doctor Weir and Doctor Beckett are looking at it that way?"

"I'm willing to consider other outcomes," John insisted.

"Doctor Beckett wants to save the Wraith from themselves," I said. "He can't do that unless they can be integrated back into the community."

"Ah!" I said triumphantly when John didn't reply.

"I didn't say anything!" John protested.

"You didn't have to," I pointed out. "That look of distaste on your face said it all. No matter how human Doctor Beckett's drug can make the Wraith, a lot of people are never gonna see them as anything else. I can't begin to imagine how Ronan reacted when he heard the plan."

"He said a Wraith's a Wraith no matter how it looks on the outside," John admitted.

"And that may well be true, but equally it might not," I replied. "What are we going to do with these human Wraith if this experiment does succeed?"

"I don't know - maybe we can find a nice planet for them to live on," John suggested.

"Sounds like apartheid – the kind of segregation the human race has done on Earth in the past ... it's wrong and it never works," I said with a very serious tone. "I think you're so caught up in the very idea that you can make a Wraith not a Wraith you haven't considered what you're actually going to do with the result."

"I know it's a risk," John admitted. "And to be honest I'm not that keen on some parts of the plan myself ... ultimately its Doctor Weir's call and she's set on this course of action."

"So you're gonna go out with Ronan and Teyla tomorrow and catch a lab rat?" I shook my head at the very thought.

"Pretty much," John acknowledged. "I know you're not happy about this ... you don't have to have any part in the project, if that makes you feel better."

"Not really," I replied. "You've got a part in the project ... indirectly so do I."

"We're not gonna take any chances," John promised.

"You say that now but somehow everything gets screwed up anyway," I reminded him. "It's the Murphy's law of the Pegasus galaxy ... if it's a team Sheppard mission it'll end in disaster!"

"Not all our missions end up that way," John looked faintly insulted.

"Okay, not all of them," I placated him. "Just the ones like this that are clearly crazy to start with."

"We're just gonna have to agree to disagree on this one," John got up and came over to my side of the table. "Are we still on for movie night?"

"Yeah ... maybe we should watch 'The Power of One'", I suggested sarcastically.

"You're not gonna keep making snide remarks the whole time this experiment's in operation are you?" John put a hand on my shoulder and I looked up at him with a raised eyebrow.

"That was my last one," I promised. It wasn't his fault this experiment had been approved ... since I couldn't take my frustration out on Doctor Weir I'd been directing it at John which wasn't exactly fair. "See you at dinner."

"

"That's interesting," I said under my breath a few hours later. I was wading through the information on the Tower inventory device looking for anything on project Imperium. The Tower device was different from ours in one key way - at the front of the device was a slot to insert something ... I was guessing a key device. Probably each project had a specific key and you'd just slot it in to bring up that project. Unfortunately there'd been nothing like that in the room on the Tower planet. I'd looked through the archive of Ancient devices we'd collected on Atlantis so far and had turned up empty handed there as well. Luckily Rodney had worked out a way to hook up my laptop directly to the device - I had access to the contents but it was like trying to find a specific piece of hay in a really, really, large hay stack.

So I had to go through a long and boring process of looking at each segment before crossing it off and moving on to the next one. I'd been at it for weeks to the point that I was really beginning to hate that device. The only thing that saved my sanity was the regular off world missions I was still doing as part of Major Lorne's team. Anyway, an hour or so before I was due to meet John for dinner I'd come across the word Imperium in a file on an Ancient ship called the Hippaforalkus. I delved some more and felt a sense of elation at last. "Yes!" I punched a fist into the air. My elation was short lived though as I read further and realised there was a big problem. I tapped my earpiece. "Doctor Weir, Colonel Sheppard? This is Sabina."

"Go ahead Sabina," Doctor Weir said.

"There's something I wanted to ask you," I replied. "Are you in your office?"

"Yes," Doctor Weir acknowledged. "Colonel Sheppard and Doctor McKay are here also."

"I'll be there in a few minutes," I made my way to the nearest transporter, practising in my head how I was going to present myself.

"I know where the device is," I announced as soon as I walked in the door.

"The device?" Doctor Weir frowned in confusion - we called everything a 'device' so I couldn't blame her for being confused.

"The one the Ancients created on Doranda," I reminded her. "The one that's supposed to take advantage of Wraith telepathy."

"Where is it?" John asked curiously.

"A ship called the Hippaforalkus was on a mission to pick it up from somewhere and bring it back to Atlantis," I smiled when John grimaced in distaste at the name. "I looked it up on the Ancient database - Hippaforalkus was an Ancient general."

"Where's the ship now?" John didn't seem as excited as I was.

"I don't know," I admitted, "but there's no evidence that it ever returned to Atlantis so it could still be out there!"

"And that helps us how?" Rodney asked impatiently.

"Because now we have something concrete to look for," I pointed out.

"The ship may never have made it to the planet the device was on," Rodney pointed out. "Finding it doesn't guarantee you'll find the device."

"That's true," I admitted, feeling my excitement deflating rapidly at the lack of enthusiasm in the room.

"Do we have any idea where this planet is?" Doctor Weir asked.

"No, there's no record in the Tower inventory - I looked the ship up on the Atlantis inventory and there was no record there either. The best I could find was that the Hippaforalkus covered one sector of the galaxy - it's pretty large but it does narrow it down somewhat."

"The Ancients really didn't want anyone to find this device did they?" John complained.

"Look I know it's still going to be just luck if we stumble across it," I admitted. "I just wanted to request that you inform all the off world teams to keep their ears open for any mention of Ancient ships, legends, stories, that kind of thing."

"Certainly we can do that," Doctor Weir agreed easily.

"It's a long shot," John pointed out the obvious.

"I know," I agreed. "But it's better than no shot at all."

It took three weeks for the entire experiment with the Wraith John dubbed Michael to play itself out. Needless to say it went about as well as I'd been expecting. I'd been kind of hoping that Doctor Beckett would have devoted his research time to designing the biotic virus we'd talked about months ago but instead his focus had been squarely on the retrovirus since well before John had come into contact with Ellia. He had created a vulnerability in the Wraith the Ancients could never have predicted ... but deep down I still felt attacking the technology itself was a better plan. I'd kept myself well clear of Michael during the whole time, spending most of my waking hours in my lab.

It wasn't a surprise when Michael escaped with Teyla as hostage, necessitating a swift pursuit from Ronan and John. The only piece of luck we did get was the ease with which they all escaped the Wraith infested planet Michael had chosen to retreat to. John did get his potential biological weapon ... if we could ever bring ourselves to implement it.

Authors Note:

The Michael episode bothered me on a number of levels, not the least of which was how Michael knew what a DVD was or how to put one in a computer and watch it. With no memories, inherent skills only should have been retained - his inherent skills would make him able to operate Wraith technology but ours is much different so he should have been completely lost. Also how did he know how to read English - that's how he knew his name was made up? He should be able to read Wraith but not English! Anyway, the end result of all these issues I had was that I didn't want to do more than just a minor protest from Sabina, even though the whole thing takes place on Atlantis. She doesn't agree with the experiment so it makes sense she'd avoid the result as much as possible.

Next up is Inferno ... hopefully not too obviously after my early use of the Hippaforalkus! Editing and posting two chapters for this tomorrow ...